Lung-exercising apparatus.



PATENTBD JULY 21, 1903.

P. VON BOECKMANN. LUNG EXERGISING APPARATUS..

APPLICATION FILED JULY 2, 1902,.

N0 MODEL.

ATTORN EYS MWD@ PAUL lvoNV BoEcKMANNQoF NEW YORK, N. Y.

Patented July 271,

OFFICE. A

" LuNG-ExERclslNe APPARATUS.

.SPEGIFICATIYON forming part of Letters Patent Nava-1,252, dated July.21, 1903. Application filed July 2, 1902.. serial No. 114,076. (Nomodel.)

To @ZZ whom t ntwyfco'lecern:

Be it known that I, PAUL voN BoEcKMANN, a citizen of the United States,residing in the boroughy of Manhattan, city, county, and StateH of NewYork, have linvented certain new and useful Improvements inLung-Exercisin g Apparatus, of whicll the following is a specification.

My inventionrelates to apparatus' for exercising the lungs, so as todevelop their capacity and to bring the blood into a healthfulcondition.

I have found that by properly-gaged breathing exercises the condition ofthe blood can be improved materially, but that care must be taken not toproduce too great a strain, because in the lattercase il'l'juriouseffects are liable to follow.

My invention relates particularly to `that class of apparatus in whichthe person is supposed to blowinto a recipient of variable capacity, thechange in capacity being generally effected bythe use of a float or bellwhich dips more or. less into a liquid, according to the amount of airblown into the apparatus. In an apparatus of this class as the bell ormovable part of the recipient rises the resistance opposed tofurthermovement remains practically unchanged, and the beneficial resultis very slight.

Therefore my present invention has for its object to providemeanswhereby the v'resistance opposed to the movement of the recipientupon theY blowing in of air will be increased gradually. Y

Several of thefconstructi'ons*which I have devised for carrying out my,present invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in whicheach of the vfigures is a central sectional elevation of a differentform of my invention. It will be understood that I do not restrictmyself to these specific constructions,but that the features ofimprovement are pointed out inthe appended claims and that anyconstruction upon which one or more of said claims can be read will to agreater or lesser extent present the same advantages as the constructionshown in the drawings.

In Figure l, A indicates the base upon which rests the container orshell I3, adapted to be filled with water or other liquid and to receivethe inverted cup or movable section C, preferably provided with a lip CQengaging the'upper edge of the shell B. D is the air-inlet tube, whichextends within the shell Bv and within the nlovable section C, so as toterminate above theV level of the liquid, the lower end of said tubebeing provided with an elbow which connects with a tube D', adaptedforconnection with a Vflexible tube provided with a mouthpiece, thisbeing a wellknown construction, which I have not deemed it necessary toshow. in the drawings. the top of the movable section C is suspended avessel or bucket E, which is open at the top, so that it lnay becomefilled with the liquid contained in the shell B. The connection ofthisvessel with the movable section C may be lnade by means of a chain F,engaged with a hook G on the movable section, and this also affords ameans of adjusting the connection by silnply engaging the hook withdifferent links of the chain. Any. other 4connection may be employed;but preferably the connection should be adjustable. As air is blown intothe upper portion of the movable section Othis sectionwill rise and willcarry the receptacle E with it. As vlong as the said receptacle E isbelow the surface of the liquid the resistance opposed to the rising ofthe movable bell C will not vary appreciably but as soon as thereceptacle E yrises above the level of the liquid ,an V.additionalresistance will be opposed to the further movement of the section C, andthis resistance will increase gradually as the said receptacle E risesout of the water or other liquid. The person breathing into theapparatus will thereforeb'e'compelled to breathe' harder andharder inorder to bring about a f urtller movement of the section C; but as theresistance increases gradually all danger of an excessive strain and ofinjurious results consequent thereupon is avoided. By adjusting thedistance between the hook G and the top of the receptacle E, I can varythe time which it takes the said receptacle to rise above the liquid,and thus the action of the entire apparatus may be readily adjusted.

In the construction shown in Fig. 1 the adj ustment of the receptacle E,which furnishes the gradually-increasing resistance, can be effectedonly by removing the bell C from the apparatus, inasmuch as theadjusting de- From vice is located inside the bell and is not accessiblewhen the apparatus is in operation. To enable the resistance device tobeadjusted from the Outside, I may employ a construction such as shown inFig. 2, where the base A, the shell B, the inverted cup C, and theairsupply tube D are constructed substantially as in Fig. l, except thatthe movable section C is provided at the center with an aperture or witha sleeve C2, through which is adapted to pass the stem H of theresistance II,which latter is in the form of acylinder and maybe solidor hollow. A screwI or anyequivalent device, serves to rigidly connectthe bell C with the resistance device H, and the stem H may be providedwith a scale or graduation indicating, for instance, the distance fromthe top et the bell to the top of the resistance-body H. The action inthis case will be the same as described with reference to Fig. l-thatis, the resistance will not increase appreciably as long as theresistance-body II is entirely submerged in the liquid; but as the saidbody gradually emerges from the liquid the resistance will increaseprogressively. The same result is obtained in a somewhat differentmanner in the construction represented in Fig. 3. Here I employ aconstruction almost identical with that in Fig. l except that the chainF, instead of carrying the receptacle E, has secured thereto at regularintervals plates or disks J, which form the resistancebody. It will beunderstood that upon the rising of the movable section C the plates ordisks J will one by one rise above the liquid, and the resistance willthus be increased gradually; but this increase will be a stepwiseincrease instead of being absolutely gradual, as in the constructionillustrated by Figs. 1 and l-that is, t-he resistance will bepractically unchanged while the bell C rises from the position shown inFig. 3 until the uppermost disk J reaches the surface. Then theresistance will be increased by an amount which corresponds to thedifference between the weight ot' said disk J and the weight of a bodyof water of the same volume. The resistance will then remain unchangedat this figure until the second disk J reaches the surface, and thus theincrease will progress step by step.

In Figs. 4 and 5 I have shown two constructions in which theresistance-body is located exterior-ly ol' the bell C. The generalstructure oi' the apparatus is the same as before described except thatthe air-inlet tube D2 is disposed` centrally. In Fig. et the top of themovable section C is provided with a hook or eye lr upon the outside toreceive one end of a chain F3, which leads over stationary pulleys K andcarries weights or resistance-plates J, preferably at regular intervals.The lowermost of these plates is adapted to rest on the ground or 011any suitable support, and as the movable body C rises all the plates Jmove down except the 011e which rests on the counterbalance for themovable section C.-

As soon as the second plate from the bottom rests on the stationarybottom plate the amount of the counterbalance is reduced and thcresistance to further upward movement of the movable section C isincreased. A further increase takes place when the third plate J isarrested by contact with the plate below, and thus the resistanceopposed to the rising movement of the section C increases step by stepuntil all the plates J are in engagement with each other. In Fig. 5 themovable section C is flattened at the top to form a seat for thelowermost one of a series of resistance-plates J2, spaced apart and heldin proper relation to each other by some means which does not interferewith the movement of the plates relatively to each other. For instance,a chain F3 may be employed, and it will be readily understood that whenthe movable section C rises sufciently to bring the lowermost plate J 2against the next plate above the resistance Will be increased, and afurther increase will occur when the continued rise of the movablesection C brings the second plate J 2 against the top plate.

lVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. Alun g-exereising apparatus, comprising a stationary receptacle orshell adapted to contain a liquid, a movable section or bell arranged todip into said liquid,- and provided at the top with a central attachingdevice upon its inner surface, a chain adj ustably connectedwit-h saidattaching deviee,a resistancebody suspended from said chain andconsisting of an open receptacle arranged to dip into the liquid, andmeans for conveying the air into the upper portion of the bell.

2. A lung-exercising apparatus, comprising a stationary receptacleadapted to contain a liquid, a movable section or bell arranged to dipinto said liquid, a bucket suspended from the top of said bell andadapted to dip into said liquid, and means for conveying air into theupper portion of the bell.

A lung-exercising apparatus, comprising a stationary receptacle or shelladapted to be filled with a liquid, a movable section or bell adapted todip into said liquid, a resistance device suspended from the top of thebell, and adapted to dip into said liquid, and means for conveying airinto the upper portion of the bell.

Ll. A lung-exercising apparatus comprising a stationary receptacle orshell adapted to contain a liquid, a tube which has a dischargeorificeabove the level of the liquid and which is adapted to receive the airexhaled by a person, a movable section or bell arranged to dip into saidliquid and to confine the air blown through the said tube, andadjustable means arranged to dip into the liquid for opposing agradually-increasing resistance t0 IOO IIO

ance-body emerges more lor less from the liquid, and means for conveyingair into the upper portion of the bell.

In testimony whereof I have signed my r 5 name to this specioation inthe presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

PAUL VON vBOECKMANN.

Witnesses:

JOHN LOTKA, EUGENE EBLE.

